The Willful
by Elise Rose
Summary: Haru awakens to find that Mouta has sent Toto to retrieve her, but somethings wrong with Baron.
1. Default Chapter

**The Willful**

**Note**: I don't own "the Cat returns" I can only dream.

**Summary**: Haru awakens to find that Mouta has sent Toto to retrieve her, but somethings wrong with Baron.

Haru sat hunched over with her head resting on the top of her medium sized oak desk. She had crammed the night before foran importantsemester test, got caught sleeping in class, and as a result recieved detenion for four hours every day after school for the rest of the week. The thought of the test results only added to her silent panic. What if I fail?What if Mom gets mad at me? She closed her eyes. "I suppose I'm worrying to much" she said quietly. "some sleep should help clear my head." Using what little strengh she had in her arms to push herself up out of her seat, Haru stood and began to walk the short distance to her bed. The 16-year-old's legs slowed and her feet dragged with fatigue. As soon as she reached her bed she plopped down on the soft comforter, and fell asleep.

She awoke two hours later to the feeling of extra weight slightly pushing down the left end of the matress. Her habit was to look at her small alarm clock whenever she awakend. 11:15PM. She slowly sat up and looked around, only to have her gaze met by a somewhat large silohouette perched on the wooden end piece of her bed. She could hardly tell what it was. She guessed it was a bird or a rat.Just then,a faint bit of moonlight began to shine through the window, making the creature's feathers glisten. It slowy became completly vivid as the shape of a bird. It can't be! she thought. She reached over with her right hand and touched it's long dark, wings, and feathers cold with the night.There before her was a very familiar blackbird. A friend she hadn't spoken with, or even seen, in a year and a half. She had thought fondly of her adventure nearly every day, holding on to every fragment of memory she could, ensuring that she still knew that what happened was not a dream, that she had actually met cats who talked, danced, ruled kingdoms and fought. All the while guided by the raven named Toto, a fat cat named Mouta, and a very valiant (and rather handsome) cat figure whom she knew as Baron. The whole time she was back, Haru never allowed herself to forget that **they** were real, and that **he** was real. "Toto" she whispered. "Is that really you?" The raven hopped down onto the bed. "I knew it was you Miss Haru! Long time no see huh?" He must have been excited to see her again because he was practically yelling. "Sssh" Haru put her forefinger to her lips. "My mom'll hear you!" "And what are you doing here? Did Baron send you? Does he want something?" Toto shifted his claws uncomfortably. "Mouta sent me, and about Baron..." "What about him?" She asked anxiously. Toto's tone of voice had already began to frighten Haru. Toto looked down and stayed silent. she impatiently grabbed Toto by his sides and began shaking him "What about Baron! What about him! Tell me!" He freed himself from her grasp and flew onto the window sill. Alright! Mouta told me not to take you there, but I guess i'll have to for fear of youshaking me like that again. Follow me" he said before diving gracefully out the window.


	2. Trust Me

**The Willful: Chapter 2**

**"Trust Me"**

Note: Thanks everyone for the wonderful comments. I decided I would spend a little extra time on this to get it to the site sooner! hope you enjoy chapt.2

Haru had never snuck out of the house before, frankly she didn't even know how to go about doing it. She finally decided she was either going to tiptoe quietly to the front door, or find a way to get out through her window without falling ten feet. The safest way was through the door, but the quickest was out her window. She figured she had no time to lose and decided to carefully climb out using the vine fence under her window as a makeshift ladder. She lowered her head while putting one leg out the window, she then put her other leg out until she was sitting in the open window. Slowly and cautiously she turned around and began climbing down. Two feet from the end of her descent her foot slipped and she fell backwards, landing in the bushes. She quickly crawled out, stood up and ran after Toto who had already started flying the second she left the bushes. It was to late at night for the streetlights to be on. Haru followed Toto the best she could even though the lack of light made it extremly hard for her to see, much less pursue the dark raven. When Haru eventually arrived and walked through the brick archway and onto the cobblestone landscape, she found that the light to the cat bureau (which she knew was usually maintained by Baron) was not on. At that moment she really began to get worried. In a panic, she ran up to the small doorway and crawled through it so fast she was surprised she didn't break it. When she got back to her feet she realized that the room wasn't too small for her this time. "One of the many gifts Prince Lune gave Baron to thank him. A spell so that as soon as you enter the house, you shrink to fit it." Haru turned in the direction of the voice to find Mouta, slouching lazily on the sofa reading the paper. Haru ran around to the front of the sofa and gave him a big hug, half choking him despite his size. Though seeing him sleeping in the white chair at the corner cafe was a regular occurance, she was still happy to have a chance to talk to him without worrying about people noticing. "So what's going on? Is everything okay? Is Baron alright?" Haru's voice was quiet and slow. Mouta folded the paper and tossed it on the long table in front of him and sighed."Should I tell her Fatso or are you going to try too hard and bust a lobe?" Haru looked up to find Toto sitting on the chandelier screwing in lightbulbs."Shut up Bird Brain I can tell her!" He turned to Haru. "Baron's sick kid, he's been lying in there for about a week," He motioned his head towards a door on the right wall that Haru hadn't even realized was there during her first visit. "I'd think he was dead if he didn't say something in his sleep every now and then." She looked over at the door again. It was a lovely shade of burgundy and had only one rectangluar cut in the center. The doorknob was what appeared to be crystal and had a little key hole in the center. "Is it okay if I-" "Go ahead" Mouta interrupted "We've tried everything. I thought you might be able to cure him."

"I hope so." Haru said, looking again at the door. As she began walking, an image appeared in her head. She and Baron were challenged to a fight by two of the king's guards. He told her to stand behind him as he fought off the guards. Another image materialized. Haru became too tired to continue up the tower stairs and told everyone else to go on ahead of her. Baron stopped, ran back and quickly, but carefully picked her up. The last image took place at the banquet. She was crying, thinking Mouta was dead and that she was going to be a cat forever. She looked up and saw Baron's gloved hand outstretched towards her, "Trust me" he said. "Trust Me." 'He asked me to trust him, and this time **he's** in trouble and i'll make sure he can rely on me.' She turned the door knob, opened the door just enough to allow her entry, and quietly closed the door behind her. Taking a moment to survey the room she found that it was a bit different than the other room in the house. It was victorian styled like the other room, but most of the armchairs,tables, and shelves were covered by old, dusty sheets. The room was a bedroom, but it obviously wasn't used hardly at all. Haru had never thought of or was able to picture Baron sleeping. Since he was a figure she didn't really think he could sleep. She guessed that when he was tired, he would turn back into a figure like Toto. But now it seemed they were able to choose wheter they wanted to or not, and judging by the state of his bedroom Baron didn't choose to too often. She made her way to his bed. It was the kind of bed with a bar circling the top of it like a canopy. On the bar were rings connected to a large piece of cloth that surrounded the bed like a shower curtain. She slowly pushed the curtain to the left to reveal a sleeping Baron. Haru blushed, he looked almost as charming asleep as he did when he was awake. "You can trust me. You helped me, and I promise you I will do the same." Tears filled her eyes. She lovingly lifted up her hand, and began stroking the fur on his head. As she did this, his forehead started to glow a dark shade of purple. She gasped in fear and yelled for Mouta and Toto, within seconds they both had made it into the room, even though they tried to go through the door at the same time. "What's wrong kid" Mouta panted. Haru pointed to the purple on Barons head which had, within seconds changed it's appearance from a large glow, to the glowing outline of an eye.


	3. Calling

**The Willful: Chapter 3**

**Calling**

At 1:45AM most people would expect Haru to be at home asleep, Toto to be resting in statue form atop his limestone perch and Mouta to be sleeping in the white metal chair at the corner cafe. Though very few people would expect to find them all awake, and all together in a cat figure's bedroom. Haru had pulled one of the old armchairs up to Baron's bedside and sat, never taking her eyes of him. Toto was settled on a covered coffee table cleaning his feathers. And Mouta, stood thinking with his arms folded by the door. 'That eye' he thought. Somehow he found that design familiar, he had seen it before, but he just couldn't remember where. Then it hit him. 'I know! That looks sorta like the eye that freaky cat emperor has on **his** head! I bet **he** caused Baron to get sick too!' He was so sure of his suspicion he almost blurted it out. He would have, if he wasn't so afraid he would upset Haru, and possibly make her worry more than she needed to. He looked down at her. Her beautiful face had turned red and her eyes looked like they were going to overflow any minute. The last thing Mouta wanted was to see her cry, especially if **he** were the one responsible. In an attempt to cheer her up he walked up to her and put his large, white paw on her shoulder. "I think I know who can help him." he said. Haru turned to face him. "Really?" she asked. Her eyes focused intently on his. "Yeah. I'm sure he can." he replied. Haru beamed. "Let's go see him then!" "You mean you're going to visit Prince Lune?" Toto asked. "Yeah, why?" The blackbird hopped down from the table. "If you are planning to go see prince Lune, how do you expect to get to the Cat Kingdom uninvited? There are no portals nearby, and we couldn't possible find one big enough to let **you** in." "I've seen Baron call for one before!" Mouta yelled. "You actually thinkyou can call the port-" "Let's Try it." Haru finally interrupted. "Who knows, maybe we can get it to work. It won't hurt to try." Toto, like Mouta couldn't stand to see Haru upset. "Alright." He consented. "Well, If we wanna get there in time we'd better go." Mouta said, and left the room with Toto not far behind. Haru stayed back with Baron for a second. "We won't be gone long, please hold on Baron." She leaned in to kiss him, something she would never have the courage to do if he was conscious. Still, her heart had longed for the chance, and now that the chance had come her heart was beating so hard she could feel it through her chest. She leaned in closer, and closer, till nothing more than a centimeter stood between her lips and his. Mouta stood impatiently at the front door. "C'mon kid!" he called "We ain't got all day!" Haru jumped one second from kissing Baron. 'I can't believe I almost... I really shouldn't let my emotions get out of hand like that.' Embarrased, she stood and swiftly walked out, shutting the burgundy door behind her.

When she got outside she noticed an unusual silence, having left Mouta and Toto together for over ten minutes, Haru had half expected them to be well into a huge arguement. No, they weren't fighting, though they were acting a bit wierd. Mouta stood facing onward scratching his head, while Toto meandered around his large, sculpted post. "so um, how's the portal going?" They both turned around. "It's not going. I've tried everything!" Mouta exclaimed "I asked for a portal, told them I really needed one, I even said Please, I got nothing." "Of course it wouldn't open for you. Why would the kingdom willingly let in some fat, dumb cat who was well known for eating all their fish?" Toto called from the high point of his column. "Come over here and say that you-" Suddenly, half the area lit up an electric shade of blue. Mouta turned around to find Haru, smiling and motioning for he and Toto to follow her in. "Haru!" he cried,and started to run, but the portal was more than 20 feet away and closing fast. He wouldn't have made it if he wasn't grabbed by Toto's claws and flown in.

Note: I had my sister listen while I read this chapter, and she wanted to know how the portal appeared. If I didn't make it obvious enough, Haru called it while Muta and Toto were arguing. :) Thanks again everyone for the great comments! Hope you enjoyed this chapter!


End file.
